A friend of mine, a psychiatrist, once told me it was a bad idea to ask a patient why he had done something or said something. Much better to ask what his reason was for doing or saying something.
Asking why gave him an opening to explain matters in terms of factors outside his control. His reason could only be his own.
I've been reading for so long that the practice has simply become second nature. But I got into it because I enjoyed it and because I enjoyed it I became good at it. It is, after all, a co-creative act. The reader actualizes the potency of the text (to put it Thomistically). This is called fun. It can also be enlightening, because it forces you to look at and think about life in a more focused and intense manner than ordinarily. This, in turn, over time enriches one's being. The knower and the known are one, as St. Thomas noted. The more you know, the more you are. Reading is one of the principal ways of enriching the soul. If you have not read, say, The Magic Mountain, your life is to that extent impoverished. The same is true if you have never really looked at a Botticelli or listened to Bach's B-minor Mass. Living is not the same as making one.
You say, "Reading is one of the principal ways of enriching the soul." Oh, how I like that argument. A reader might not serve society or culture by being a reader, but he can certainly serve himself in a most profound way. Yes, I like your argument. Thank for you sharing it.
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